Venezuelan-Iranian help for Syrian missiles
Venezuelan-Iranian help for Syrian missilesIsrael News Photo: (file)

Israel faces a new enemy pact as Venezuelan aircraft ships Iranian missile parts to Syria in violation of United Nations sanctions, according to the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Both countries are rich in oil and have signed more than two dozen agreements the past several months.

The missile parts include computers and engine components that are listed in a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution concerning Iran's missile program. The resolution calls on all countries to "prevent the supply, sale or transfer" of any substance for making or developing weapons that can be equipped with a nuclear warhead.

Iran maintains direct air service between Tehran, Damascus and Caracas.



In return for sending missile equipment to Syria, Iran is providing its Revolutionary Guards to train Venezuelan police and secret agents, La Stampa reported.



Israel bombed a Syrian structure in September, 2007, in the northern part of the country, where U.N. inspectors have discovered nuclear material.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has developed a close relationship with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the past two years in a mutual effort to back other countries' "attempting to liberate themselves from the imperialist yoke."

Chavez has stated support for Hizbullah and for the Iranian nuclear program but expressed objections to Ahmadinejad's statements that Israel should be eliminated.